Yesterday, the Supreme Court declined to review a Second Circuit Court of Appeals decision which had upheld an injunction against the streaming TV service ivi.
In plain English, this means the service will essentially be shut down. The Seattle-based service - which sold worldwide access to 28 broadcast signals without asking for permission or even informing the stations - launched in late 2010, and almost immediately drew the ire of public broadcasters like WNET in New York City and KCTS in Seattle.
WNET and WGBH in Boston were among 11 stations that sent cease and desist letters to ivi soon after its inception, and the service was in legal hot water from the very start.
According to Broadcasting & Cable, the original injunction (which has been upheld) was based "...on the grounds that programmers were likely to win their challenge on the argument that ivi was not a cable system entitled to a compulsory license, and that those programmers, which included major studios, networks and broadcast groups, would suffer irreparable harm."
This fits into the larger trend of broadcasters battling against what they see as unauthorized or illegal re-use of their signals online, with the continuing legal battle over Aereo - a similar streaming service - as another example.
